There are few, if any, consumer products for which safety is of more importance than a crib. A crib is the primary place where infants and toddlers spend unsupervised time, and, as such, it is critical for cribs to be designed to prevent any significant chance of injury or death to their young inhabitants.
Despite increasing standardization and regulation relating to the design and manufacture of cribs, significant hazards still exist. Recently, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), whose function it is to protect the public from unreasonable risks of injury and death due to consumer products, issued a document (#5025) declaring that it is concerned about having received reports of numerous incidents in which cribs have come apart, resulting in injuries and death. The document cites three examples of reported mechanical failure in cribs. Two of these examples pertain to the failure of a screw or bolt securing the side rail of the crib to the corner post or headboard of the crib. These failures resulted in the side rail becoming spaced from the mattress and the young child choking or suffocating to death after becoming entrapped in the resulting space. According to the document, similar reports of fatal accidents are repeated many times in CPSC files, and many more nonfatal incidents are on record in which an entrapped child was rescued.
To address the problems identified with regard to crib construction generally, and more particularly with respect to securing the attachment of a crib side rail to a corner post, headboard, or endwall, an inventive crib side rail is presented. A redesigned guide rail and/or mounting apparatus inhibits the type of failure exemplified in the above-recited CPSC document and will save infants and toddlers from death and serious injuries.
In one embodiment of the invention, there is presented a crib including a pair of endwalls and a pair of sidewalls. At least one of the sidewalls is descendable to facilitate placing a child and removing the child from the crib over the descendable sidewall. The descendable sidewall has opposing ends, one of the opposing ends adjoining one of the pair of endwalls and the other of the opposing ends adjoining the other of the pair of endwalls. The crib also includes a leg disposed proximately to where the descendable sidewall adjoins the one of the pair of endwalls and a leg disposed proximately to where the descendable sidewall adjoins the other of the pair of endwalls. The legs support the crib above a generally flat surface and provide clearance between the crib and the generally flat surface such that the descendable sidewall is descendable toward the flat surface relative to the endwalls. The crib further includes a crib side rail for slidably supporting the descendable sidewall of the crib thereon between the endwalls. The crib side rail is securely retained relative to the endwall by having a portion thereof disposed through an aperture in the endwall and by having a rear portion thereof bent behind the aperture.
In another embodiment of the invention, there is presented a method for assembling a crib. The method includes the steps of providing a generally bent rail having a rear portion and at least one end portion generally perpendicular to the rear portion, providing an endwall having an aperture therethrough suitably sized to receive the rail therethrough, the endwall having a leg extending therefrom, providing a sidewall having at least one aperture therethrough suitably sized to receive the rail therethrough, and providing a mounting bracket. The method also includes the step of inserting the end portion of the rail through the aperture of the endwall. The method also includes the step of sliding the end portion of the rail through the aperture until the rear portion of the rail attains a predetermined distance from the endwall and is generally parallel thereto. The method also includes the step of bending the end portion of the rail approximately 90xc2x0 such that it is generally parallel to the leg. The method also includes the step of aligning the sidewall aperture with the bent end portion of the rail. The method also includes the step of threading the sidewall onto the bent end portion of the rail. The method also includes the step of translating the mounting bracket along the leg, and then simultaneously along the leg and the bent end portion of the rail. The method also includes the step of affixing the mounting bracket relative to the leg.
In yet another embodiment of the invention, there is presented a crib including a pair of endwalls and a pair of sidewalls extending between the endwalls. Each of the sidewalls is descendable to facilitate placing a child into and removing the child from the crib over one of the descendable sidewalls. A leg is disposed proximately to where each descendable sidewall adjoins each endwall. The legs are for supporting the crib above a generally flat surface and for providing clearance between the crib and the generally flat surface such that the descendable sidewalls are descendable toward the flat surface relative to the endwalls. The crib further includes a pair of crib side rails for slidably supporting the descendable sidewalls of the crib thereon between said endwalls. Each of the pair of crib side rails is associated with one of the pair of endwalls such that it is retained between a pair of apertures therein. Each of the crib side rails has a central portion retained behind the associated endwall, a pair of retention portions retained in the apertures of the associated endwall, and a pair of end portions each for slidably supporting one end of the descendable sidewalls.